In 3 months, pulled guinea pig, roasted alligator, and lamb tongue will cause Andrew Zimmern, the James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, food writer and teacher, is back taking viewers to the backyards of America while exploring the bizarre melting pot of exotic and familiar cultures our nation has to offer.

The premiere episode of "Bizarre Foods America" with Andrew Zimmern transports viewers to the Twin Cities - Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., to encounter some of the most progressive and passionate food producers in the country. Always willing to try new things, Zimmern heads outdoors to get a real taste of how Midwesterners catch their comfort food. First, a trip to the river to capture a snapping turtle that's butchered and served deep fried. Then, Zimmern tries his first shot at bow fishing and learns that carp, the fish many foodies consider garbage, can be delicious!

Zimmern turns the heat up on the out-of-the-ordinary cuisine in his adopted hometown when he judges the cook off at the local VFW where the elk and wild rice hot dish is deemed the winner. He also discovers a few local restaurant favorites including a twist on the traditional "Juicy Lucy" burger - a cheese burger where the cheese is inside the burger, a brined and breaded duck testicles appetizer, and a few new dishes using a product known as meat glue.

"I'm really excited about the new season of 'Bizarre Foods' focusing on telling the stories of hidden cultures and unusual foods found right here in the U.S.," said Zimmern. "It turns out, people are most curious about what is happening right under their own noses, even in their own neighborhoods."

Throughout the series, Zimmern crisscrosses the United States stopping in cities including Austin, Boston, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, San Diego and Seattle helping viewers relate to the traditional foods passed down by immigrants to modern dishes born and bred by American innovation. He discovered the quirky subcultures, the enduring traditions and the ways we feed ourselves in America.

Pulled guinea pig, roasted alligator, and lamb tongue! Andrew Zimmern, the James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, food writer and teacher, is back and this time marks the first time an entire season is dedicated to taking viewers to the backyards of America while exploring the bizarre melting pot of exotic and familiar cultures our nation has to offer. Who better to discover this red, white and unusual smorgasbord than Andrew Zimmern?

"I'm really excited about the new season of 'Bizarre Foods' focusing on telling the stories of hidden cultures and unusual foods found right here in the U.S.," said Zimmern. "It turns out, people are most curious about what is happening right under their own noses, even in their own neighborhoods."

It's here. Andrew Zimmern has taken his act to various metro areas around the country, starting with Minneapolis/St. Paul where he as a former New Yorker now lives. He started the inaugural program with a cookoff of 100 "hot dishes" in a basement of a church with $100 prizes for dessert and hot dish. Andrew served as a judge with a frequent contestant and with an older woman who lives for hot dish. The judges were obligated to sample each of the 100 dishes and grade each one. Then they had to agree on a winner in each category. That was not hard because an elk with wild rice dish stood out and a liquid nitrogen frozen raspberry jello did too. They each won the prize.

Andrew started a dialogue with the husband of the elk winner and he got invited to their farm to view their herd. That only lasts so long, so they went on to hunt and butcher snapping turtle. That is not something I would want to do.

A Different set of hunters were trying to help clear the lakes of invasive carp by hunting at night. they caught some and then sent them for special brining and other processing to make them edible.

St. Paul is the center of the Hmong people from the Vietnamese Highlands (who would have guessed that it was not Los Angeles?). They have their own market that is set up multiple times each week. Bitter bamboo soup there is bitter and famous.

Andrew offers his services to the restaurant Haute Dish to prepare one special hot dish as chef. He uses a lowest level of mixed offal (pig intestines, pig uteruses, goat liver), then a middle layer of watercress and pea puree that was not the traditional cheesy one, plus top layer of tater tots (that fits the mold of hot dish). His fellow judges from the hot dish competition were particularly invited to come and sample it. The younger one found it not traditional with a cheesy second layer. The older woman rated it "9" out of "10".

Andrew went to New Orleans and was enchanted by the cuisine and culture there. He started out in Bayou Pigeon with a noted New Orleans chef catching alligator for a special recipe of Cajun style alligator to go with a crawfish boil for 60 of the chef's relatives (a weekly event). Lots of dry red hot pepper mix was rubbed all over the alligator or dumped into the boil.

Another Cajun country store showed off its boudin, a pork-based sausage.

Frogs were captured, beheaded and cooked two different ways, piquant and Cajun style.

Rabbit was prepared and eaten, but that was not shown. Turtle was cooked in red and brown gravy.

Funerals frequently use a brass band to accompany the procession to the deceased's house.

Another example of music was a trumpeter/singer who made Creole specialties.

Andrew went to 2 very famous restaurants, Willie Mae's fried chicken (the secret of her success is in the batter) and Dookie Chase's chicken Creole.

There is a large Vietnamese contingent in New Orleans. They shuck oysters for many restaurants. Andrew tried Viet hot pot and pizza. He opened and enjoyed a very large jackfruit (which can be up to 80 pounds).

This port city is the next stop on Andrew's tour of America. He is focusing on things that have made Seattle famous, like coffee and seafood with a little time for other things. Among those other things are:

The Slayer Professional Expresso Machine is a totally new technology that has just been introduced. I could not remember where the Slayer was demonstrated. I think it was not shown. This machine costs $18,000 and there are only 3 presently in Seattle restaurants even though The Slayer is made in Seattle.

I only saw about half of this episode, although I have covered for that by checking all the photos and short videos.

The Italian heritage in Boston's North end was featured with Maria's Pastries, where the cannoli are killer. Il Panino Express does Italian sandwiches, which feature Italian sausage varieties. Gelato are very popular.

Andrew wanted to go fishing, so he chose dogfish and Marblehead Bay. He loved the flavor of dogfish cooked by a local Marblehead restauranteur.

Andrew also wanted to check out the oyster beds first-hand. Island Creek Oysters took him there to see them and their restaurant is a top seafood mecca.

This episode was Detroit. Andrew went to Motor City Soul Food for some good down-home cooking, including at My Sisters and Me.

For BBQ he went to the Cafe D'Monde Speakeasy, which name I guess is supposed to make you think about New Orleans.

His most memorable dining experience was an invitation to a private home celebrating Ramadan, with its after-sundown feast. The hostess really went all out for her family and Andrew was the beneficiary.

Andrew went to the Eastern Market for food at Vivio's Restaurant.

Andrew and the Mayor of Hamtramck went out to eat special sausages and bread plus a very special burger.

Andrew went to West Virginia (WV) and really enjoyed the outdoor lifestyle there. He started by white water rafting on class 3 and class 5 rapids on the Gali River. A stop was made so he cook join experienced hunters who were shooting squirrels.

Deer were the subject of another hunt. Andrew enjoyed the comforts of a hunter's cabin until a deer showed up to claim his attention and shot. It was hung up for bloodletting but the heart and kidneys were cooked and eaten immediately.

He was invited to participate in an Appalachian hootenanny. He was allowed to dance with the children and 80 year old man before they left the stage to the adults.

He attended the Pocohontas County RoadKill Cookoff and Autumn Harvest Festival in Marlinton as a judge. 10 teams completed and Andrew was a judge. He got $1000.

Andrew shot a groundhog. The preparation for it into stew was to strip off the fat and blanch it in salt water.

He talked about New Appalachian Cooking, using groundhog preparation as an example.

Andrew went to Charleston SC and was interested in pursuing the waterways, fields and forests providing the sources of local food. The funniest part of this episode was when Andrew was given a 10 pound ax and asked to split some logs for use in the BBQ pit after being burned to charcoal. Andrew could have ducked this or mis-reported it, but he was honest in reporting that it took him 20 minutes to split his first log. After that I assume he quit out of frustration.

That happened at Scott's BBQ in Hemingway SC about 90 miles from Charleston. This is a family-run business with an excellent reputation and Andrew clearly enjoyed eating the final product.

Andrew visited with chef Sean Brock of McCrady's Restaurant, which he has turned into a food mecca.

As a port city, Andrew expects that a good portion of the unique foods he will eat will be seafood. He went fishing for Octopi with his friend Jim Galt and then Galt family and friends preparations of octopus salad and grilled octopus.

He also went out crabbing with Tepple Sea Products. They are famous for steamed crab.

Oysters and shrimp were mentioned, but no details given. However, a unique opportunity was to shoot marsh hens, which at low tide were difficult to see and therefore shoot. They were then fried and Andrew pronounced them delicious.

So far all of the above is not bizarre at all. However, a trip to Daufuskie Sea Island certainly highlighted the dressing of raccoon for barbecuing by Sally Robinson. She also demonstrated gullah cooking, which is to cook dishes made of corn and cornmeal and to gather and use sassafras leaves.

Andrew tried the fruit scuppernongs, which looks and tastes like a grape. most of the locals peel it, but Andrew did not.

Andrew was invited to assist Jewish caterers on a feast for hundreds of Jews celebration Sukkot. They started with pastrami and grits. They then put that into cornmeal and fried it. The caterers proclaim that one deep fryer for every 50 guests is essential for Southern cooking of any style.

Andrew finished with a visit to The Lady Chablis, a transsexual who was part of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." They ate at Clary's Cafe and later at a fancier restaurant.

I have compared the places Andrew had expected to visit vs. what he has actually telecast so far (Boston, Detroit, New Orleans, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Charleston, Savannah, Seattle and West Virginia). What we have to look forward to is:

100th Episode of "Bizarre Foods" Series to Kick Off the New Season, which starts with a one hour retrospective Monday July 9 at 8pm EDT and followed by 8 episodes.

Dive into pigeon pie in Austin, barbeque some armadillo in Central Florida and eat lambs tongue at a one-night only pop-up restaurant in Los Angeles in season six of the "Bizarre Foods" series. Andrew Zimmern, the two-time James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef, food writer and teacher, once again ditches his passport and explores the bizarre foods and cultures in our own backyard in the new season of "Bizarre Foods America"

In the 100th episode, Zimmern travels to Las Vegas to uncover why this city is all about extremes - biggest, best, most expensive and elaborate. From over-the-top-excess including $750 cupcakes, $1,000 sundaes, and a hamburger priced at $5,000, Zimmern goes behind the velvet curtain at some of "Sin City's" top luxury hotels including the Bellagio and MGM Grand. At the Bellagio buffet - feeding 4,000 people a day, armies of people turn out handcrafted perfection in quantity (over 16,000 pastries per day) with a supply of top quality items including 4,000 homemade sausages, 400 pounds of prime rib and 2500 pounds of fish - delivered fresh six days a week. Over at MGM Grand, where special event parties happen year-round, Zimmern goes backstage at the celebrity-filled Muhammad Ali 70th Birthday Bash to see how they serve a world-class dinner to 1800 guests. He will later investigate an innovative food waste processing unit that produces "slops" feed for pigs.

In the seventh season of "Bizarre Foods America" with Andrew Zimmern explores the surprising and unusual ways we feed ourselves in this country. From forward-thinking innovators that challenge the way we view food to traditionalists keeping the old ways alive, Zimmern's advice remains the same: "If it looks good, eat it!" Throughout the season, Zimmern travels the United States stopping in cities including Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Portland and Washington, D.C.